


Rebel, Rebel

by monroe_militia



Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: F/M, Teenage Rebellion AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-19
Updated: 2016-05-18
Packaged: 2018-02-09 14:04:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1985700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monroe_militia/pseuds/monroe_militia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rachel comes home from a business trip and doesn't like Charlie's new look. Her new boyfriend is even worse.<br/>AU where Charlie and Connor are pierced, heavy make-up wearing rebels... But it's only a stage, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Steph_Schell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steph_Schell/gifts).



Rachel Matheson had just gotten back from yet another business trip and was being driven home by her husband.

"You were gone for a lot longer this time," Ben pointed out for at least the third time so far this car ride.

"I know. But it's my job, Ben," Rachel defended herself in an irritated tone. "What do you expect me to do?"

"That's not what I'm saying," her husband responded, his eyes seeming a little too focused on the road ahead of them. "I just think that before we get home that it's important that I warn you that a lot has changed in the past few weeks… Things are pretty different now at home."

"I think that I can handle it, Ben," Rachel retorted in a moody tone as she stared out the passenger side window. She was tired from the trip and that combined with the instant reminders of how long she had left her family for this time had put her into a bad mood.

The pair spent the rest of the ride home in an uncomfortable silence. After a few minutes Ben turned the radio on just to try and fill the silence.

* * *

Rachel didn't make it more than three steps into her home before she dropped her bags to the floor in shock. She stared at her daughter in silence, mouth agape, for several long seconds before she finally remembered how to speak.

"What's with the costume, Charlie?" She finally managed to croak out.

"It's not a costume," Charlie responded as she momentarily stopped rummaging through her bag to glance up at her mother.

"So you're telling me that you just woke up one morning and all at once decided that you were going to dye your hair pitch black, put on clumps of make-up, and get facial piercings?" Rachel demanded.

It was true. Charlie now wore heavy, dark make-up paired with her dark dyed hair. Her whole wardrobe these days seemed to be primarily black and she had recently added a nose ring and lip stud to the look.

Today she was wearing leather pants, a black tank-top, and a choker necklace. It was like she had walked right out of a bad dream of Rachel's.

"No, it wasn't all at once," Charlie said in an irritated tone before she gave up on whatever she had been looking for and threw her bag over her shoulder. "… Maybe if you'd actually been here for once you would have known that."

With that she made her way to the door, shoving her mother with her shoulder harshly on her way by.

"Where are you going, Charlie?" Ben questioned. "Don't you at least want to welcome your mother home first?"

"I'm meeting Connor," Charlie responded, pausing momentarily in the doorway. "And not really… She's already made me late enough standing in the way. And I'd rather not waste my time with someone who just leaves when I have someone who actually stays waiting for me."

Rachel opened her mouth to speak, but by the time that words came out her daughter was already out the door.

"Who's Connor?"

Danny had been sitting on the couch watching the entire encounter and quickly spoke up with, "He's Charlie's boyfriend."

"Charlie has a boyfriend?" Rachel asked in surprise before she turned and pointed accusing eyes at her husband.

"I tried to warn you," Ben insisted. "But you were sure that you were prepared."

"What did you let our daughter do to herself?" Rachel demanded.

"It's not that bad, Rachel," Ben said in a futile attempt to calm his wife down.

"Have you seen her?" Rachel shouted.

Ben decided that now was not the time to make matters worse by telling his wife about Connor. Instead he figured that Rachel could use a little time to calm down before she finds out what Charlie's new boyfriend looks like.

* * *

"And there's no 'I missed you Charlie' or 'Hi, Charlie' or anything," Charlie continued her rant as she sat cross-legged on the floor of Connor's house. "No, it's just straight into judgy-lecture mode. But what did I expect? She's hardly ever home, but whenever she is she lives in some delusion where she's super mom or something."

"That's messed up," Connor agreed. He had spent the last ten minutes silently listening to Charlie as she spilled out the entire story.

Bass turned into the room and his expression immediately transformed into a grimace.

"Oh great, Charlie's here," he muttered sarcastically. "Are you two staying here and eating or what?"

Connor glanced over at Charlie for a split second before he decided that she'd already had to deal with her own disapproving parents, so she really didn't need to deal with his disapproving dad right then.

He turned and glared back over at his father. "We were just leaving."

Charlie didn't question the interaction. It was nothing out of the ordinary for Connor and his father. Instead she just silently rose to her feet and followed him out of the house.

* * *

A few minutes later, the pair stood outside the door to Miles' apartment waiting for him to let them in. Charlie had her own key, but she was a little hesitant to use it since the time that she had practically walked in on Miles and Nora.

When Miles came to the door he simply wordlessly smirked at the two teens before pushing the door out of the way to let them in.

He didn't need to ask what they were doing there. He knew that his place had become like a refuge to the couple, since both of their fathers less than approved of their relationship. Ben seemed to think that Connor was responsible for the change in Charlie and Bass was sure that Charlie was the main reason that his son walked around with dyed black hair, black make-up, and several piercings. Bass had hated it enough when his son had gotten the two hoops through his eyebrow along with his ears pierced. The tongue piercing was a whole new level.

"I actually am kind of hungry," Connor admitted as he flopped down onto Miles' couch feeling more comfortable than he usually did in his own home.

"Pizza?" Charlie questioned.

Connor nodded his head in approval before turning his head a little, "Miles?"

"Pizza's fine."

Charlie ordered the pizza and then returned to Miles' living room with a bottle of beer for each of them in hand. She set them down on the table as she sat down on the floor next to it before turning to face her boyfriend.

"Come here."

Connor let out an exaggerated groan as he rolled off of the couch and moved to sit beside her.

Charlie smiled a little to herself as she turned to rummage through her purse.

"What are you looking for?" Connor questioned.

"This," she responded victoriously as she pulled a bottle of black nail polish out of her bag. "I'm doing your nails."

She wanted to take her mind off of her mom being back and she figured this was as good of a way as any.

Connor didn't argue and instead just stuck his hand out over the table to give her better access to his chewed down nail beds.

Charlie was just finishing up painting his second hand when there was a loud knock at the door.

Miles left the room and returned a moment later with a pizza box in hand.

Charlie closed up the nail polish and put it back into her bag as Miles set the pizza down on the table. They usually just ate straight from the box since Miles didn't believe in having to wash dishes. The only types of plates found in Miles' kitchen were paper ones and even those were a rarity.

Connor moved his hand like he was going to go open the pizza box, but Charlie quickly reached out and grabbed onto his wrist.

"Hey, wet nails," she told him. "You can't use your hands."

"Then how exactly do you expect me to eat?" Connor questioned.

Charlie tossed the lid of the pizza box open and then grabbed a slice. She took a bite out of it before turning to her boyfriend and telling him, "Open your mouth."

He did as he was told and Charlie moved the pizza over so that he could take a bite too.

"Beer me," Connor told her.

"You have to finish this slice first," Charlie teased.

Connor opened his mouth comedically wide in response as Charlie moved to feed him, cramming half of the slice into his mouth at once.

A laugh found its way to her lips as he made a slight choking noise while biting down. Charlie took the rest of the piece back and finished it off as she grinned innocently over at him.

Miles finished off own slice of pizza as he watched the pair with an amused smirk before turning to head to the kitchen to grab himself a drink.

After much chewing, Connor eventually managed to swallow the rest of the pizza in his mouth.

"Jesus, Charlie. Just because you don't have a gag reflex doesn't mean that I don't," he told her accusingly.

She continued to look as innocent as she could manage as she told him in a gloating tone, "Sorry, my hand slipped."

"Yeah, sure it did," Connor responded sarcastically with a slight smirk of his own. "And I have Justin Bieber's name tattooed on my ass."

"Really? Can I see?" She asked in an eager voice, causing her boyfriend to roll his eyes. "Or better yet, you should show my mom. I'm sure she would flip out."

"Oh, so now the plan is to piss her off?" Connor questioned.

"She's going to be pissed off either way," Charlie pointed out with a shrug. "It's just more fun on my terms."


	2. Chapter 2

"Who was at the door?" Rachel asked as she walked into the living room to find her son eating a bowl of cereal.

"Connor," Danny responded between mouthfuls. "He's here to pick Charlie up, but she wasn't ready yet."

"So then where is he?" Rachel questioned with an edge to her tone.

* * *

"Just once you could try actually being ready when I get here," Connor commented with a smirk as he flopped down onto Charlie's bed. "…But at least you've still got yesterday's smudged makeup on. That's a nice time saver."

"Shut up," Charlie told him with a roll of her eyes as she moved to her closet in search of a shirt. "At least I wasn't still sleeping."

"This time," Connor added on in an amused tone as he leaned back on his elbows.

Charlie settled on a low cut t-shirt and was just pulling it over her head as her mother walked into the room.

"Don't you think that he could have waited somewhere else while you changed?" Rachel asked, struggling to try and keep her tone even remotely controlled.

"Calm down, Mom," Charlie said with an eye roll. "I'm putting clothes on, not taking them off... Besides, it's not like he hasn't seen me in a bra before."

Connor had to cover his mouth to try and hold back a laugh as he decided to sit back and watch the show.

Rachel stared at her daughter in disbelief for a few seconds as Charlie moved to the mirror to try and fix her makeup.

"What has gotten into you, Charlie?" She questioned, although as she looked over at her daughter's now openly smirking boyfriend she had a sneaking suspicion of what had caused the change in Charlie.

"Good morning, Charlie," Charlie said, doing her best impression of her mom in a good mood. "Oh, your boyfriend's here. Wow. It's nice to meet you, Connor..." She glared over at her mother. "Good talk, Mom."

With that she pushed past her open-mouthed mother, grabbing her bag on the way by, and turned her attention back to Connor.

"I'm ready now."

* * *

Rachel followed her daughter down the hallway as she asked, "Where are you going?"

"Dirty tattoo parlour, cheap strip club, rundown motel... The usual," Charlie answered sarcastically. "Might even drop by Planned Parenthood if we've got enough time."

To Rachel's horror, Connor and her son exchanged grins as the couple walked through the living room.

"See you around, Danny," Connor said on his way out with Charlie.

* * *

As soon as the door shut behind them, Rachel turned to shoot her youngest child a look of disbelief.

"What?" Danny asked.

" _That_ 's Charlie's boyfriend?"

"Yeah," the youngest Matheson responded. "Why? What's wrong with him?"

Rachel just about fainted at that as she asked her son, "Have you seen him?"

"No, I'm actually secretly blind," Danny responded with a grin. "…Yes, I've seen him. But so what? I like him."

This really was Rachel's worst nightmare... It was bad enough that Charlie had dyed her hair and gotten piercings and a bad attitude, but it was even worse that she'd found herself a boyfriend with the same problem. And the cherry on top was the fact that her attitude seemed to be spreading to Danny, who somehow didn't seem to notice any problem with the changes in his sister.

It was hard enough trying to cope with Charlie like this, but there was no way that she was going to let Charlie and her boyfriend become bad influences on Danny and change him into whatever it was they thought that they had become.

* * *

"I think she likes you," Charlie said with a smirk as she and Connor reached his car.

"Yeah, about as much as my dad likes you," he told her with a grin. "Oh, he was a big fan of the nail polish by the way. Thought it looked very masculine."

Charlie let out a laugh. "I'm sure he was... Maybe next time I'll paint your nails pink."

"Maybe not," Connor responded with a slight laugh. "There's only so far I'll let you go, Charlie."

She gave him her saddest eyes, but he didn't budge.

"Sorry," he told her before pressing his lips to hers. "Maybe Danny will let you."

"He hasn't let me do his nails since he was eight," Charlie told her boyfriend.

"Well then I'd say that it's about time he gets a turn again," Connor responded with a smirk. "Or even better, you should try and convince Miles to let you do his."

"I think I'd have to get him pretty drunk first," she told him with a laugh.

"Shouldn't be too difficult."

* * *

"I heard you were back," Miles said when he answered his door to find the opposite Matheson woman than he had expected to.

"Have you seen my daughter lately? Or her boyfriend?" Rachel questioned as she stepped into Miles' apartment.

Miles barely managed to nod his head in response before his sister-in-law was speaking again.

"What is Charlie thinking? She is not the kind of girl that just goes out and gets a bunch of piercings."

"Well I hate to argue with you, Rachel, but the evidence kind of suggests that she is," Miles pointed out, seeming quite amused with himself.

Rachel turned into his kitchen and grabbed herself a beer out of the fridge.

"This Connor boy is a bad influence on her," she insisted.

"He's not a bad kid," Miles defended. "Neither of them is. Maybe they dress a little weird and act a little inappropriately, but there are worse things."

"Maybe there are worse things, but she's on the path towards them and she doesn't seem to care," Rachel argued.

"Charlie's fine, Rachel."

Rachel gritted her teeth together before taking a chug out of her drink.

She knew that there was no point in arguing with Miles. It was clear that he was on Charlie's side of things and wasn't at all concerned about her future. Rachel, on the other hand, was still concerned. She was just sick of arguing.

"Well I still don't like him."


	3. Chapter 3

Charlie barely got three steps into her house before her mother was on her case.

"Where have you been, Charlie?" Rachel questioned from where she sat on the couch.

"Out," Charlie responded, really not in the mood for another lecture from Super Mom. "Have you been sitting there all day waiting for me to come home to yell at?"

Unfortunately, lectures seemed to be the only things that Rachel was interested in around her daughter since coming home.

"No, I went out," Rachel responded. "Came back pretty late too, a few minutes ago actually, so imagine how surprised I was to find that you still weren't home."

"It's not that late," Charlie argued.

"It's after midnight, Charlie," her mother pointed out.

"Right, so now that you're back everything has to change to your new rules and me and Dad don't get any say?" Charlie questioned. "Good luck with that."

"Look. I know that you're mad already, but I don't want you hanging around that boy," Rachel insisted. "Clearly he's been a bad influence on you already and I certainly don't want your brother hanging around him."

Charlie let out a humourless laughter at that.

"That boy has a name. It's Connor by the way, although I'm sure you couldn't care less," she responded. "And you don't get to leave for almost a month and then come back and start telling me who I can and can't be around. Besides, Connor isn't a bad influence. Maybe you would have known that if you hadn't made up your mind about him three milliseconds after seeing him for the first time. And Danny isn't a little kid anymore. He doesn't need you babying him. Besides, it's not like we're buying Danny drugs and getting him to steal stuff. Why do you just assume that we're terrible influences on him?"

"I really don't like this new attitude of yours, Charlie," Rachel pointed out.

"I wish I could say the same, but you've still got the same better than everyone else attitude you've always had," Charlie retorted.

"You know what? It's late," Rachel commented.

"So I've heard."

"We should get to bed," Rachel continued. "We can talk about this tomorrow."

"Or never," Charlie muttered to herself as she watched her mother leave the room.

* * *

When Charlie entered her room, she had to smile when she found that Connor seemed to have fallen half-asleep while waiting for her.

"I was starting to think you forgot about me," he commented as she stripped off her pants and pulled on a pair of warm socks. "I practically fell asleep without you."

"Sorry," she told him guiltily as she crawled into bed. "I had to get another lecture. I know, surprising right? And as much as I just wanted to ignore her and come to bed, I couldn't because the whole point of you sneaking in through the window was so that she wouldn't see you and kick you out."

"I'll let you get away with abandoning me then," Connor said in a lightly teasing tone. "Since you weren't having any fun without me anyways."

"I've got to admit that the look on my mom's face if she found out you were here would be pretty priceless," Charlie pointed out with a grin. "But definitely not worth having her kick you out and check my room every twenty minutes over."

Connor grinned at that and she couldn't keep herself from pressing her lips against his.

"Are you still tired?" She asked him teasingly.

"I'm wide awake now," Connor told her before bringing his lips back to meet hers.

* * *

Connor woke up in the middle of the night and carefully moved Charlie's arm from his body so that he could slip out of the bed without waking her up.

Once he reached her bedroom door, he paused for a minute and listened to make sure that he didn't hear anybody in the hallway before opening the door and heading down the hallway.

He had just reached the bathroom door when he heard a voice come from behind him.

"You have got to be kidding me," Rachel insisted as she stared in disbelief at where Charlie's boyfriend was walking through the hallway in just his boxers.

Connor groaned.

"Of course," he muttered. "I should have known that you would be guarding the halls like a prison warden after all that Charlie's told me."

"Actually I was going to the kitchen in _my_ house, if that's alright with you," she snapped back at him. "But you're a real charmer, aren't you?"

"Look, if you're going to throw me out, can I at least use the bathroom first?" Connor complained. "That's kind of why I got up in the first place."

Rachel just responded by staring at him in utter disbelief.

"I'm going to take that as a sure," Connor informed her before turning into the washroom.

* * *

Charlie woke up the next morning and was disappointed to find that the other side of the bed was empty. She figured that Connor might have just gotten up to use the washroom, but when she noticed that his clothes were missing from her bedroom floor, she had a sneaking suspicion of what had happened.

When Charlie walked out of her room, Rachel was just on her way out to leave for work. Charlie greeted her with an icy glare.

"Come on, did you really think that I was going to let him stay the night?" Rachel questioned.

Charlie didn't respond. Instead, she just walked straight past her mother as if she hadn't heard a sound.

"Oh, so we're doing the silent treatment now?" Rachel asked in an unimpressed tone.

Charlie turned to face her then as she asked, "Don't you have to leave for work?"

"I can be late," Rachel responded. "Why can't you just tell me what's going on with you, Charlie?"

"Don't do that." Charlie insisted as she turned her back and headed over to the fridge.

"Don't do what?"

"Don't try to pretend that work can wait because you're worried about me," Charlie clarified. "We both know that you put work before your family… Besides, you aren't worried about me. You're worried about how I'll make _you_ look. You were never worried about me before I became some huge embarrassing disappointment to you."

With that, Charlie slammed the door of the fridge shut and pushed her way back out of the room.

* * *

When Bass came home from work, he found Charlie sitting on Connor's lap as the pair made out.

"I'm home," he commented. "Not that that's going to stop you… Try not to choke on each other's tongues, alright?"

Once Bass had headed out of the room, Charlie pulled her lips away from Connor's and began to laugh loudly.

"He might be an ass, but at least he's not kicking you out," Connor commented.

"My mom makes both of our dads look approving," Charlie agreed. "All I can do is hope that she gets pulled away for another business trip soon… And have a little fun torturing her in the meantime."

"Shouldn't be too hard considering she's already pissed off, even when we aren't trying," Connor pointed out.

Bass walked back into the room with a beer in hand then, so the subject quickly changed.

"You staying over tonight?" Connor asked.

"I could hardly stand being in the same room with my mom already," Charlie pointed out. "And now she's probably going to be coming into my room every three minutes to make sure that you're not there. So yeah, there's no chance that I'm going back home tonight."

Bass may have made his dislike for his son dating Charlie abundantly clear, but the one advantage to him was that he didn't try to stop Connor from sleeping at Charlie's or from letting Charlie stay over. They may have had to put up with a lot of complaining from Bass, but at least Charlie and Connor never had to worry about sneaking around at Connor's place.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a long flashback in the middle of this chapter, so I italicized the part that takes place in the past to make it more clear.

"Don't you think that the voicemail threatening to imbed a tracking device under my skin was a bit much?" Charlie questioned as her mother walked through the front door. Rachel was going to let the comment slide until Charlie muttered out, "At least Bass doesn't try to control Connor's every movement."

Rachel paused halfway through the room and turned to stare at her daughter in shock as she questioned, "Bass? Why would _Bass_ try to control Connor?"

Charlie and Danny sat in a stunned silence for a few moments before Charlie let out a twisted laugh.

"Of course you wouldn't know. Why would you? You spend more time away than you do here," she commented before turning to look at her brother. "How many trips ago do you think Bass found out about Connor?"

"I think it was when she was on the second last one," Danny responded.

From what little information Rachel had gotten out of Ben, the changes in Charlie had started right around the same time.

Before Rachel got the chance to respond, her son began to second-guess himself.

"Maybe the one before that..." Danny continued, as he looked thoughtfully over at his sister. "No, I'm pretty sure only two… Because you two started dating around the time she left for the last one and he hadn't been here long before you two met."

Rachel shot her son an incredulous look.

Danny shrugged innocently, "What? You were gone when he moved in with Bass."

It wasn't like what he said hadn't been the truth, although that was a big part of why it bothered Rachel so much. She already felt bad enough about the time she spent on trips and this was only making things worse.

"So Connor's Bass's son?" Rachel questioned with a raised eyebrow. She needed to be sure of the answer as she focused back on her daughter, "You're dating a Monroe?"

Great. Now she was going to pre-judge Connor even more than she already had been.

"He doesn't like to be called a Monroe," Charlie countered. "That's not his name. It's Connor _Bennett_. He likes his Mom's last name better."

"Charlie, I don't-"

"You don't what?" Charlie interrupted. "Want me going near Connor because he's apparently some terrible, corrupting influence? Yeah, you already went through that one before you knew whose son he was. Besides, he isn't like Bass."

Rachel wasn't convinced though. She'd known Bass at that age and, although he hadn't worn the kind of costume that his son seemed to enjoy, he had been bad news back then too.

After staying up all the night before, worrying about her daughter, and catching Connor over the night before that, Rachel thought that she deserved the liberty of going through Charlie's room. It was clear that Charlie wasn't planning on listening to her and was going to continue to do whatever she wanted.

Rachel needed answers and Charlie needed consequences. So, without another word, Rachel turned and headed down the hallway.

* * *

A few minutes passed before Charlie heard noises coming from her room and realized what was going on.

"What the hell are you doing?" She demanded as she rushed into her room to try to supervise Rachel's antics.

She was already too late though and she could tell by the look on her mother's face that she had found something. Charlie wasn't sure what it was, but she knew that, whatever it was, it wasn't good.

"Look under your bed, Charlie." Rachel said in that calm and controlled tone that always meant that she had been pushed over the edge and was about to explode into a fit of anger.

And the really ironic part was that Charlie honestly didn't know what she had done. That was until she crouched down and realized what her mother was fuming over. A used condom.

In all fairness, it wasn't like the fact that she was sleeping with Connor hadn't become abundantly clear when Rachel had caught him outside of Charlie's room, half-naked, in the middle of the night. And it had only become more obvious when she hadn't come home the night before.

She was an adult who was sleeping with her boyfriend. She didn't see why it was such a big deal, but it was clear that Rachel was planning on blowing things out of proportion.

Still, Charlie just shrugged and commented, "At least we're being safe."

Rachel remained disconcertingly silent. She was going to need to have a serious talk with Bass and sooner rather than later.

Charlie was waiting for the screaming to start, but it didn't. Instead, Rachel just turned and stormed out of the room.

"Mom? Where are you going?" Charlie demanded, but Rachel didn't even falter before walking straight out of the front door.

* * *

" _What do you mean you're leaving? You just got back from the last trip," Charlie complained after being informed by her mother that she was going to have to leave on a last-minute business trip, one that was going to last even longer than the one before. "What? You can't stand to be around your family for more than a day and a half straight before you have to run away again?"_

" _It's my job, Charlie," Rachel pointed out. "What do you expect me to do?"_

" _I don't expect you to do anything," Charlie muttered out before turning to leave the room. "Come on, Danny. I'll drive you to school. We wouldn't want to make Mom late for work, right?"_

_As the two Matheson children walked out the front door, Ben commented, "They'll get over it."_

" _I hope so," Rachel said as she turned to look at him. "This definitely isn't the best goodbye I've gotten."_

" _They're just going to miss you," her husband insisted. "I'm sure things will be back to normal by the time that you get back."_

* * *

 

_Charlie walked back into the now empty Matheson home, wondering what she was going to do all day with her brother at school, when her reflection caught her eye. She stopped and glared over at it._

_There was no question that her appearance was all Rachel. She'd gotten numerous comments on how much she looked like a younger Rachel, and yet no one ever mentioned any of her looks that she got from Ben. But could she really blame them? She looked just like Rachel and in that moment she hated it more than ever._

_She didn't want to be like her mother. She didn't want to look like the parent that put work ahead of her family and neglected them. Why couldn't she just find one damn thing that she had in common with her father? Couldn't she at least have gotten his dark hair or something? The only similarity that she could find was the blue in her eyes that could just as easily have come from her mother._

_Charlie's first thought was to cut her hair short or chop it all off, but she liked her hair. She still needed something different though._

_Charlie ripped her gaze from the mirror and turned to grab her car keys before heading back out of the house. It wasn't until she'd actually started the car that she realized where she was going._

* * *

 

_A few hours had passed, but it still wasn't time to go pick Danny up yet. Charlie had managed to get a small triumph, but she was still angry and had a rare urge to drink. She knew that there was one place where she could get a drink no questions asked, to the home of the only person who had ever given her anything alcoholic._

* * *

_Charlie let herself into Miles' apartment and hesitated for a moment before she heard the unmistakable sound of Bass swearing at the TV. So then it was probably a safe assumption that she wasn't going to walk in on anyone half-naked. Good._

_She turned into the living room to find Miles and Bass sitting in front of a TV that was playing some football game. With them was a guy a little older than her who was sitting off to the side in a chair. When she first glanced his way he looked bored out of his mind, but he perked up a little when he spotted her._

_Miles noticed her at the same time and stared at her for half a second before commenting, "Your hair is different."_

" _I dyed it," she responded._

" _It's black," he added._

" _I had an impulse," Charlie explained as she cracked a small smile. She knew that Miles never made any real comments about changes in appearance, whether he liked the change or not, so his reaction was expected. The last time that she'd gotten any input on something like that had been on a Halloween costume when she was eight. "And now I need a drink."_

_She turned to head to the kitchen and Connor instantly rose to his feet and followed her, uninvited._

_Once the pair was out of the room, Miles turned to Bass and commented, "I was starting to wonder what he has in common with you, but following around any girl he sees is definitely all you."_

* * *

 

_Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Charlie had just taken a swig out of her beer and turned around to see the boy, who she could only assume was Bass's mystery son, standing a few feet away from her._

" _I like it," he told her._

" _What?" Charlie asked, genuinely confused._

" _Your black hair," he responded with an innocent shrug as a small smile tugged at his lips. "I like it."_

" _You don't know what my hair looked like before this," she pointed out, seeming amused._

" _I don't need to," he insisted. "I can tell you look good without knowing how you looked before."_

_Charlie looked down at the bottle in her hand, then back up at him with a satisfied smile on her lips. "You're Bass's kid, right?"_

" _That's what they tell me. Although I usually go by Connor."_

_Charlie looked over at him for a moment before her smile became mischievous. She set her drink down and then took a couple of steps forward to close the distance between them as she brought her lips to his._

_He was cute and seemed to be interested, plus she was in an especially impulsive mood today. So why not?_

* * *

 

_Miles had been heading to the kitchen, but paused and turned to look back at his friend with a smirk. He figured that getting another beer could wait since his kitchen was otherwise occupied at the moment, so he walked back over to sit on the couch again._

" _Well, I think they like each other," he commented in an amused tone._

" _What?" Bass questioned as he turned to look over in the direction of the kitchen before turning back to Miles. "With Charlie? I don't think so."_

_There was no doubt in his mind that innocent, little, goody-two-shoes Charlie Matheson was the type of girl who would giggle and awkwardly dance around flirting instead of ever letting anything actually happen. He was wrong._

" _Really? Because you can go look. They've got their tongues halfway down each other's throats in there."_

* * *

 

_Several minutes passed before Charlie finally pulled away as she told him, "I'm Charlie. Miles' niece."_

_With that, she took a step back and grabbed her drink again, before turning to head back out of the room._

* * *

_Charlie and Connor had returned to the living room as if nothing had ever happened. It wasn't until half an hour later, when Charlie was leaving, that either of them said a word to each other again._

_As she rose to her feet, she turned to Connor and told him, "I've got to go pick my brother up. You want to come?" She'd only had the one drink, since she'd known that she still had to pick Danny up, but she was still feeling a certain amount of courage that had formed from doing things that she typically wouldn't._

" _You have no idea how much I want to leave," Connor responded as he got up to follow her. He'd had more than enough of listening to Miles and Bass 'watch' TV._

* * *

_As Danny got into the car, he commented, "I don't know which to be more surprised about; the fact that you dyed your hair black or that you brought a guy with you."_

_Connor turned to smirk over at her as she rolled her eyes at her brother._

" _Danny, meet Connor Monroe."_

" _Bennett." He corrected._

" _What?" She asked as she turned to look over at him in confusion._

" _My name's Connor Bennett," he explained. "Not Monroe."_

" _Okay, then. Danny, meet Connor Bennett."_

* * *

 

" _You dyed your hair," Ben pointed out in surprise as he walked into the house and his attention immediately zeroed onto the older of his two children._

" _That's what they tell me," she responded. She smirked a little to herself as she recycled Connor's retort, despite the fact that he wasn't there to hear it._

" _She also got a boyfriend," Danny commented without looking up from his homework._

" _He's not my boyfriend," Charlie argued, although the word 'yet' came to her mind just as much as it came to Danny's._

* * *

 

_A few days later, Charlie was bored out of her mind again and headed back over to Miles' place._

_Miles began to laugh as he watched her less than subtly crane her neck to look around the corner, trying to check if there was anyone else over._

" _Connor's not here, Charlie," he told her._

" _What makes you think I was looking for him?"_

" _I saw you two in the kitchen in the kitchen," Miles informed her. "For future reference, if you're interested in someone, you never leave without a phone number, whether you think you have people in common or not."_

_Charlie didn't get the chance to say anything before her uncle had picked up the phone._

" _What are you doing, Miles?" She questioned._

_He responded with a smug smirk instead of words as he began to dial._

_There was a painful pause before she heard Miles ask, "Is your kid there?"_

" _Miles. Don't." Charlie insisted as she shot him a warning glare, but it was already too late._

_Miles tossed the phone over at her and she barely managed to catch it before it could hit the ground._

" _Oops. My hand slipped," he apologized with a less than innocent shrug._

* * *

 

" _Connor!" Bass called out._

" _What?" Connor grumbled as he walked into the room._

" _Miles wants to talk to you," Bass told him as he held out the phone._

" _Why?" Connor questioned, glaring at the phone. He didn't understand why his dad's friend was calling him._

" _I don't know. Ask him yourself," Bass insisted._

_Connor reluctantly took the phone from his father and muttered out, "Hello?"_

* * *

 

_Miles leaned forward, resting his weight on the back of the couch, as he watched Charlie glare at him from across the room. He was just about to comment on how smooth the whole silent act was, when she finally spoke up._

" _What are you doing today, Bennett?"_

* * *

_Bass was surprised to see a rare smile form on his son's lips. It may have been a smug one, but it was a smile nonetheless._

" _Has anyone ever told you that you have a very feminine phone voice, Miles?" Connor asked, sounding thoroughly amused with himself._

" _Just answer the question."_

" _I don't know. You tell me," he responded. "Are you at Miles' place?"_

" _Yeah."_

" _Alright. I'll meet you there."_

* * *

_As Charlie hung up the phone with an undisguisable smile, Miles commented, "You owe me… You two had better name your first-born after me."_

" _Shut up."_

" _You're welcome."_

* * *

Bass opened the door and let out a loud groan.

"Well if it isn't my least favourite Matheson," he commented. "And that's saying something, considering how much your daughter's been getting on my nerves lately."

"Do you know what I found in Charlie's room?" Rachel questioned with a clear edge to her tone.

"Was it Connor?" Bass questioned, seeming nowhere near as upset as she was. In fact, he almost seemed amused with his response.

"Do you think this is funny, Bass?" Rachel demanded.

* * *

Connor was upstairs in his room when he heard the shouting start a few minutes later.

"Don't try and act like you're a real father, Bass!"

"At least I knew whose kid Connor's dating!"

"At least I knew I had a kid!"

"Yeah and I've heard your kid bitching! …You know, Rachel, I'm surprised that you didn't a surrogate mother to deal with your pregnancies for you so that they wouldn't interfere with your work!"

Connor rose to his feet. This was definitely too good to miss.

* * *

"Don't talk about my kids like that!"

"Why not? Because you speak so kindly of my son? Besides, Charlie's an even bigger mess than you used to be and it's rubbing off on Connor."

"The only reason that she's a mess is because your disaster of a son is a horrible influence on her," Rachel retorted. "Have you looked at him? How many piercings does he have Bass?"

Connor turned into the room then with a smug grin plastered on his face. He'd made it there in perfect time. "If you're going to count, then don't forget this one."

With that he stuck his tongue out much further than was necessary to show off his tongue stud before closing his mouth again and leaning back against the wall as he waited for the rest of the drama to unfold.

As Rachel recoiled from even the sight of him and his tongue piercing, a self-satisfied smirk formed on his lips. "What? Charlie seemed to like it last night."

Much to Connor's surprise, a smirk formed on his father's lips at that. He must really dislike Rachel too, since he let out a laugh instead of getting pissed at Connor for that remark.

Rachel was clearly even more pissed off at that, but she remained silent as she realized that anything she said was going to be ignored by Bass or used as ammunition.

She shot a glare over at Connor, who decided that she looked a little too annoyed with his presence for someone who had shown up at his place to complain about him. Someone needed to let her know that she was dismissed and he wanted to make a point of the fact that he had every right to be strolling through the room with his tongue stud hanging out of his mouth, so he decided to add a little extra insult to Rachel's injury by acting as though she weren't even there anymore.

"Is there anything to eat?" Connor questioned as he turned to look over at his father, effectively turning his back to Rachel and blocking her out of the conversation.

Rachel shook her head. This was getting her nowhere. If anything, it was making matters worse so she turned around and walked out of the door without another word.

Once she was gone, all amusement that had been present in Bass's features immediately dissipated and he just looked annoyed as he turned to look over at Connor.

"I'll make food if you take that damn eye-liner off for the rest of the night," he offered.

"Deal."


	5. Chapter 5

Charlie knew that her mother was almost certainly eavesdropping on her and Connor, or at the very least keeping an eye on them. It was clear that Rachel had been less than thrilled when she had come home to find Connor and Charlie lying on the couch, with him on top of her, and his tongue seemingly probing its way down Charlie's throat.

When Rachel had loudly cleared her throat to announce herself, Connor had finally pulled his mouth away as Charlie had brought one of her hands up and ran it through Connor's hair. That effectively kept him from moving too far away.

"What?" Charlie had questioned ever so innocently as she'd looked up at the unimpressed look on her mother's face. "We've both got our clothes on. We're in the middle of the living room where you can easily tell what's going on instead of hiding in my room. So what's the problem?"

Rachel had given up at that, figuring that it was at least a small victory that they were where she could keep an eye on them and were still clothed. She didn't need the pair acting even worse just to prove a point, so she decided to leave it and just walked out of the room feeling more than a little exhausted.

* * *

Charlie was still convinced that her mother must be nearby, so she made sure to speak a little louder than was really necessary as she told Connor, "I have a game for you to play."

"What kind of game?" Connor asked as he brought his lips away from her neck for long enough to hover over her with a satisfied grin on his lips.

"A guessing game," she told him as a devious look crossed her features. Her lips quirked up into a smirk and something in her eyes spelled out mischief as she added, "I got a new piercing and you get to try to find it."

"I think I like this game," Connor insisted with a grin before bringing his lips back down to meet hers.

He kissed her for a moment before moving his lips close to her ear as he told her, "We'll play later."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Rachel was fighting back a panic attack. Her heart was racing and she had to grab onto the counter in order to help balance herself as she tried to catch her breath.

This was not happening. This could not really be happening.

Rachel had gotten a good look at Charlie's face when she'd first come home and she was certain that there had been no new piercings visible, even when her daughter had opened her mouth to speak.

Besides, if the piercing was visible, then it wouldn't haven't been a game to try to find it. And with the two of them already having their tongues in each other's mouths when she'd shown up, that ruled out a tongue piercing since he would have already noticed it.

This could not seriously be happening. Her baby girl hadn't really gone this far. Had she?

Rachel silently prayed that it was just a belly button piercing. For the sake of her sanity, she _needed_ it to just be a belly button piercing. Still, she had more than a few doubts about that by the way that Charlie had acted as though it was a game trying to search for it.

Rachel felt physically ill as she found herself wondering her daughter had gone for a piercing below the belt or whether she was more likely to have gone for a nipple piercing. Either way, the thought made her stomach turn and she wasn't sure which answer she'd prefer. The thought of either one repulsed her. And she'd thought that Connor's tongue stud had been bad.

* * *

Charlie pulled away from Connor, breaking off their kiss as she reached to pull the hem of her shirt up above her naval to reveal her latest piercing.

She shifted her weight to her elbows as she stretched herself up to speak close to his ear, quietly enough that she doubted they'd be overheard. "I bet she'll flip her lid if she thinks I got it somewhere else worse."

With that said, Charlie placed her weight back onto her back as she removed her latest piercing. She'd gotten it the day before and it was still pretty fresh, so she knew that taking the piercing out for long was a bad idea. She didn't need to leave it out for long though. She just needed it out for long enough that her mother would see her piercing-free naval and assume the worst.

Charlie slipped the stud into her jeans pocket and left her shirt slid up as she questioned, "Now where were we?"

* * *

When Rachel came walking back through the room a few minutes later, Connor pulled back a little from Charlie and rolled a little to the side to look over in Rachel's direction, intentionally letting Charlie's stomach show freely.

He practically had to bite down on his lower lip to hold back a laugh at the devastated look on Rachel's face as she stared in horror at Charlie's metal-free abdomen.

"What?" Charlie asked innocently, wondering whether her mother would confess to having been eavesdropping or just avoid the situation altogether.

Danny walked through the front door then and was only mildly surprised to find Connor lying half on top of his sister, who was laying with her shirt only half-covering her, as his mother stared wordlessly at the pair.

"See, this is why I should never invite people over," Danny commented, mostly to himself, before he turned his head a little to look over at Heather in the hopes of judging just how weirded out she was by his family already.

Heather was definitely surprised by it, that much was certain by the way that her mouth still remained just the tiniest bit agape, but she covered it up quickly as she quickly shut her mouth and put on a slightly hesitant smile.

Connor and Charlie quickly sat up and separated themselves, Charlie even rolling her shirt back down all the way, as they tried to make themselves look a little more presentable and friendly. After all, Danny didn't bring home girls with him on a regular basis. They were both intrigued.

Connor immediately started looking Heather over the moment that he'd noticed that she was there, instantly fascinated with the girl that Danny had chosen.

Rachel also seemed surprised by the fact that her son had brought a girl home, but at the same time was more than a little relieved that the girl Danny had brought home looked normal. At least she didn't have to worry about one of her kids dating a piercing covered nightmare.

"You didn't tell me that you had a girlfriend, Danny," Rachel commented, seeming a lot less annoyed than she had been while finding out about Connor after Charlie had already been dating him for a while.

In fact, in a way, Rachel was rooting for Danny to be dating this normal girl. Hopefully that way he'd be able to stay out of all of the messes that Charlie and Connor might try to drag him into.

"Actually, Heather's here to work on a partner project for school," Danny corrected, his cheeks going a little pink as he said so. "But thank you all for making sure that this could be as weird as possible."

A genuine smile replaced the polite one that had been covering Heather's lips as she held back a laugh at Danny's expense.

Danny decided that the best idea was to get her away from this as quickly as possible before they could do anything else truly mortifying to make the situation worse, so he turned and told her, "Come on, we can work in my room."

He ignored Connor and Charlie's simultaneous little smirks at that comment, along with Connor's suggestive eyebrow raise, as he turned to lead Heather out of the room.

As she followed Danny down a hallway towards his room, Heather quietly commented, "Interesting family."

"I wish that I could say that this isn't normal for them," Danny responded embarrassedly.


	6. Chapter 6

"Oh, good. Charlie slept over again," Bass muttered sarcastically as he walked into the kitchen to find the girl pouring herself a cup of coffee. "And she's half-naked. Perfect."

"Would you want to stay in a house with Rachel?" Connor challenged as he continued to watch Charlie, seeming not at all offended by her lack of clothing.

"I just want to grab something to eat without having to deal with half-naked Mathesons," Bass muttered out.

Connor just smirked to himself as he thought that his father might not have the same opinion if it was Miles Matheson that was standing there scantily clad.

* * *

Charlie ignored the expression of disappointment on her mother's face as she walked back into the house, dressed in the same clothes that she had left the house in the day before, just as the rest of the Matheson household was grabbing their stuff and heading towards the door, ready to start their individual days.

"We'll talk about this later," Rachel told her in a quiet voice that her daughter was sure had been intended to come off as gentle.

"Can't wait," Charlie responded sarcastically as her mother stepped through the door, off to work.

Unfortunately for her, someone else decided that they had time to step in and have the talk before leaving for work.

"Charlie, hold on a second," Ben told her when she moved to leave the room.

She turned back around to face him and Danny looked between the two of them hesitantly before quickly grabbing his backpack up off of the ground and mumbling, "I'd better get to school."

Ben gave his son a nod and watched him go, only turning his attention back to his daughter after he was satisfied with the click of the door closing.

"What's the big deal?" Charlie questioned. "So I stayed out all night? So what?"

Ben watched her for a moment with the disappointed eyes that made Charlie feel a sudden guilt over actions that she had previously felt completely innocent about. "I know you want to think of your mom as always being the bad guy, but I agree with her on this one."

Charlie frowned and looked down as she shifted her weight back onto her heels before glancing up at him again as she commented, "I thought that at least you weren't trying to stop me from being with Connor."

"I'm not," he told her in a tone that she could tell was meant to be sympathetic. "He's not my first choice boyfriend for you, but I know that nothing I say is going to make you want to stay away from him. I'm just saying that it isn't unreasonable for you to sleep at home and keep visiting hours to the day. Hang out with him all you want during the day, but no more sleepovers. Okay?"

As Charlie looked into her father's smiling eyes she found herself wanting to listen to him. There was something about her father that made her want to strive not to disappoint him. While her mother's tone and words typically induced defiance, her father's led her to a level of obedience.

She gave him a small smile as she told him, "Alright. No more sleepovers."

* * *

Charlie was lying flat on her stomach on her bed later that night as she tilted her head to look over at where Connor was seated, backwards in her deckchair, with his forearms resting on top of the back of the chair.

"It's getting late," she commented as she looked over at him.

"You want me to leave and sneak back in?" He asked her. "Or do you want to go back to my place again?"

Charlie rolled onto her back and debated with herself for a moment before running her hands through her hair in exasperation and responding, "I can't."

"Can't what?" He asked her. "Why?"

"This is going to sound stupid, I know," she told him. "But I promised my dad that I wouldn't have you overnight anymore or stay over at your place."

Connor watched her for a moment and it was clear from the look in his eyes that he wasn't thrilled, but instead of arguing he just shrugged and asked, "You sure?"

She rolled onto her side to face him as she nodded her head and told him, "Yeah. I want to torture my mom, not him."

Connor was silent for a moment before putting on a smile as he moved to get up from the seat and told her, "Alright." He began to walk over to the bed as he added, "If that's what you want." He leaned down to press his lips to hers for a quick goodnight kiss which immediately became more as she pulled him down onto the bed and rolled on top of him, with a laugh, to straddle him before deepening the kiss.

"I thought you said I wasn't staying," he teased as he turned to look over at where she was pinning one of his wrists to the bed.

"Not overnight," she insisted. "…But it's not that late yet."

He grinned up at her before stretching upwards to bring his lips back to hers.

* * *

"I need to talk to you for a minute, Charlie," her mother told her the next morning.

That didn't sound good.

"If it's about staying overnight at Connor's place, then Dad already beat you to it," she responded with the hope of being able to just brush the conversation off.

"It's not about Connor. It's about you," her mother responded, seeming nervous.

That peaked Charlie's interest, so she decided to indulge her mother and listen to what she had to say.

"What about me?" She asked, her words coming out a little hesitant.

"Your grandfather called. He's coming for a surprise visit," Rachel told her. The edge in her voice showed that she was not thrilled with the surprise part of the ordeal. "He gets here tonight and I think it would be best if you presented yourself a little better while he's here."

"You want me to dress differently because Grandpa's coming?" Charlie asked in disbelief. "What? Are you afraid that he's going to take one look at me and see how much of a major disappointment you turned out to be?"

"That's not what I said," her mother argued. "Please just don't make this visit any more stressful than it already has to be."

"Why don't you worry about your own failures? You've got enough of them," Charlie muttered as she turned to leave the room.

Rachel sighed in exasperation. "Look, I don't want to have this argument right now. I've got to get to work and I still have to get this place ready before picking him up tonight, so I really don't have time to fight with you. If you want to come with me and Danny to pick him up, then take your piercings out and tone your look down. Otherwise, maybe you shouldn't come along."


	7. Chapter 7

"You should have seen the look on her face when my grandpa started talking about how cool I look," Charlie insisted with a grin. "And then he started talking about what she was like as a teenager and I swear she looked like she was about to pop a blood-vessel." 

She and Connor were currently waiting in the high school parking lot for Danny to get out of school, since Charlie had formulated a plan, which Danny had been very quick to agree to, for the family dinner that night. Before Connor had the chance to respond to her, something outside the car window behind him captured her eye and stole her focus away from him. As he quickly whipped his head around to see what it was, a devilish smirk formed on his lips. There was Danny, but he wasn't walking by himself. 

As the pair approached the car, Connor rolled his window down and eyed the girl that Charlie's little brother was walking with, up and down, before he questioned, "It's Heather, isn't it?" 

If the girl was made uncomfortable by the piercing covered boy sizing her up like a bird searching for its latest prey, then she hid it well as she plastered a friendly grin on her lips and responded, "That's me." 

Danny's eyes shot daggers over at Connor from behind her as the older boy grinned back and told her, "I'm Connor." He shot Danny a smirk before turning his attention back to Heather and pretended as if the idea had just dawned on him as he asked her, "Hey, why don't you come with us? We bought some wash-out hair-dye. You wouldn't want to miss Danny with red hair, would you?" 

Heather looked back over her shoulder at Danny, whose features suddenly lost all signs of the anger that had been directed over at Connor just moments before, then she turned back to Connor as she admitted, "I _would_ like to see that, but I've got to work." 

Connor gave her a small smile and a shrug as he offered, "Maybe another time then." 

Charlie poked her head out from behind Connor then as she promised, "I'll make sure that he sends you a picture." 

"Thanks," Heather told her with a beaming smile before she turned her attention back to Danny. "I'll see you tomorrow." She pulled him in for a hug as the couple in the car watched with smug looks on their faces. 

Once she was gone, Danny got into the car and sarcastically commented, "Thanks for that. Really." 

"No problem," Connor responded, without a hint of sarcasm in his own voice. 

Danny's head fell back against his head-rest in frustration just as Charlie turned around in her seat and told him, "I like her." 

* * *

Bass was surprised when his son walked into the house with not one, but two Mathesons following him. He looked over at the trio as he commented, "Hey, you got yourself a normal looking friend." Connor shot his father a glare at that as Charlie and Danny disappeared down the hallway without a word. As Connor walked further into the room, Bass muttered out, "Sure, why not let the Matheson children have free-roam of my house?" 

"You're right, they've probably already started at least three fires by now," Miles responded in an amused tone. 

Connor sat down on the couch next to his father, then grabbed the beer bottle out of his hand and took a long swig. Bass grabbed it back as he grumbled back, "Get your own." 

"I thought you said to stop drinking all your beer," Connor pointed out in a falsely innocent tone as a shit-eating grin formed on his lips. 

"Just go get your own, smartass," Bass told him. 

"Fine," Connor huffed out as if he had just been told to climb Mount Everest in only his underwear. He rose to his feet and noticed that Miles' bottle was empty before asking, "You want another?" 

Miles smirked as he challenged, "Do you even have to ask?" 

Behind his son, Bass shot Miles a confused look. As soon as Connor had left for the kitchen, he questioned, "Did he seriously just offer to get you a drink?" 

"Yeah. Why?" Miles questioned. 

Bass shook his head in disbelief as he grumbled out, "I can't get him to do anything around here, no matter how many times I ask, and somehow you've got him volunteering to get you drinks." 

"Maybe it's because I'm not a dick to his girlfriend," Miles suggested in a tone that showed he was quite amused with his own words. 

Connor returned to the room a moment later and handed Miles a new bottle before moving to sit down again, this time in an arm chair. Clearly, he no longer felt the need to be near his father now that he had a drink of his own. 

It wasn't long before Charlie also returned to the room, with Danny still nowhere to be found, and moved to join Connor in his chair. Her phone began to loudly ring just moments later. 

She was by no means surprised to find that it was her mother calling and let out a sigh before choosing to answer with a more pleasant greeting than she usually gave her mother as she asked, "Hello?" 

"Are you with your brother?" Rachel questioned as she skipped right over all of the formalities that Charlie had so considerately chosen to go along with. 

"Why? Are you afraid that me and Connor are corrupting him?" She countered. 

"He isn't answering his phone," Rachel insisted. 

"He's busy," Charlie told her. "You can't really talk on the phone while you're getting a tattoo. But don't worry, it's just a little one... You can't go too big with a face tattoo if you still want it to look good." 

"Funny," her mother deadpanned. "Don't you think going with face is taking the lie a little too far? We both know that even if Danny was going to get a tattoo, it wouldn't be on his face." 

"Well, normally he wouldn't," Charlie agreed with a shrug that her mother couldn't see. "But he didn't really have a choice after he lost the bet." 

Rachel sighed into the phone before telling her daughter, "Just make sure that you're both home tonight on time for dinner with your grandfather." 

"Yeah, I know," Charlie responded. A small smirk tugged at her lips as she quickly added, "I'm bringing Connor too." Before her mother had the chance to argue, she concluded the conversation with, "I've got to go. It's rude to show up late to an orgy." 

She hung up the phone and was immediately asked, "Really, Charlie? A face tattoo?" 

Charlie looked up and a wide grin formed on her lips as she shrugged innocently over at where her brother was standing, dressed in the clothes she had picked out for him from Connor's room and with newly red hair. 

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Bass complained as he turned from the youngest Matheson child to look over at his own son. "I should never have pointed out that you brought someone normal over." 

Connor let out a laugh at that as Charlie shifted off of him to get out of the chair, then headed out of them room with a quick, "I'll be back in a second." She reappeared, a moment later, with her eyeliner in hand as she smirked over at her brother. "Time for the finishing touch." 

"Mom is going to have a heart-attack," Danny commented. 

"Don't worry, you're not the one that's going to get in trouble," his sister assured him. "...I'll make sure of it." She tried with one hand to hold her brother still as she attempted to apply the eyeliner, but it was to little avail. "Stop moving." 

"You're sticking sharp objects in my eye. How do you expect me not to try to move away?" Danny demanded, earning him a laugh from his uncle. 

"It's not sharp," Charlie told him. "And I'm being careful. You won't get poked in the eye as long as you stop moving." 

His squirming slowed to a minimum and Charlie managed to finish his first eye. She was just moving on to the second as he suggested with a small smile, "Maybe I should get a fake tattoo somewhere and 'accidentally' reveal it in a few days when she thinks the joke is over." 

Bass watched in silence as he got a rare glimpse on the other side of things and wondered if this was what they were always like. He turned to look over at Miles to see if the other man seemed as surprised as he felt, but Miles didn't seem to find anything out of the ordinary about what was going on. 

"I like the way you think," Charlie told her brother before taking a step back to admire her handiwork. "Don't forget to send a picture to your girlfriend." 

"She's not my girlfriend," Danny corrected her in an exasperated tone. 

"Not with that attitude, she's not," Connor chimed in. 

Charlie turned to look over at her uncle as she commented, "You're going to miss quite the family dinner." 

"You're right," he responded. "I'd almost be disappointed that I wasn't invited, if it weren't for the fact that I already have plans with Nora and Gene hates me." 


	8. Chapter 8

Charlie had to hold back a grin to keep a straight face as she walked through her house and into the kitchen, with her brother and her boyfriend at each of her sides, only to find her mother reaching to get a plate down.

"Oh, good. You two are ba-"

The plate went crashing to the ground and broken glass shot across the floor as Rachel stared open-mouthed at her son and the costume that Charlie had dressed him up in.

The room went completely silent for several long seconds, until Ben came rushing in to see what had happened.

He took one look between the amused look on his daughter's face and the distressed expression on his wife's before insisting, "I need to talk to you for a minute." Danny moved to go follow his dad, but Ben shook his head. "Not you. _You_ clean that up. I need to talk to Charlie."

Charlie followed her father out of the room and figured that he was probably just going to give her some kind of warning or was bringing her out there to save her and himself from facing the wrath of her mother, who would hopefully assume that she was out there being properly scolded. Little did she know that he fully planned on scolding her himself.

"What the hell are you trying to pull, Charlie?" He demanded.

"Relax, Dad," she defended herself. "It's just a joke."

"No, it's not just a joke," her father argued. "I'm not stupid, Charlie. I know that you're doing everything in your power to torment your mother. I don't know what's gotten into you, but it's no wonder that she's worried about you with the way you're acting."

Charlie felt tears welling up in her eyes. She could brush off her mother's lectures pretty easily, but this hurt more. She had thought that her dad was on her side and that at the very least _he_ didn't think that there was something wrong with her. Apparently she was wrong.

"It was just a dumb joke, okay?" She questioned. "I'm sorry. It's just some cheap spray in hair dye."

"That's not the point and you know it," Ben insisted. "You need to stop pushing your mother. You can't keep purposely pushing her buttons and then wondering why she has to play bad cop all the time."

"Is that why you're out here?" Charlie questioned through her tears. "Because she made you play bad cop for once?"

"No, Charlie. She didn't send me," he persisted. "I'm here because you've been inching closer and closer to the line ever since she got back and tonight you crossed it. She's already stressed out enough about having your grandfather visit and you made things even worse."

"I'm sorry," Charlie repeated. She was desperate to say something that would make her father stop looking at her so disappointedly.

Ben let out a sigh at that and his resolve cracked a little as he warned her, "No more games tonight. You had better be on your best behaviour. And I expect you to apologize to your mother, not just me."

"Okay."

* * *

When the doorbell rang, Charlie was off somewhere getting in trouble from her father and Rachel was in the middle of trying to prevent her dinner from burning while Danny was still cleaning up the broken glass. There was a loud knock at the door a few seconds later and Connor glanced around and realized that he was the only one not already doing something, so he hesitantly walked over to go answer it.

He pulled the door open to find an old man, who must be Charlie's grandfather, and greeted him with a confused, "Umm."

He wasn't used to answering other people's doors and he didn't even know the guy's name. Besides, his previous track record with making good impressions on adults in that family was less than promising.

"You must be the boyfriend," Gene commented as he let himself in past a still uncertain Connor. "I've heard a lot about you."

Connor couldn't tell by his tone whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. That all depended on whether he had heard things from Rachel or from Charlie.

* * *

Things were already tense at the dinner table before the meal even started. Ben had come back and was helping Rachel serve the food while Connor watched the doorway, wondering where Charlie was since she had still yet to reappear. Meanwhile, Danny seemed to have decided that he would get in the least trouble if he avoided making eye contact with anyone and Rachel seemed to be getting even more nervous as she fluttered around the kitchen, looking for who knows what, and, more to herself than anyone else, muttering about how the food was going to get cold.

Charlie finally appeared just as Rachel had finally given up on finding whatever mystery object she had been looking for, although Connor wasn't entirely convinced that she knew what she had been looking for either.

Charlie's face was wiped clean of make-up and looked paler than usual in contrast to her red-rimmed eyes. She clearly had been crying and hadn't even bothered to try to hide it as she walked in, eyes down, and sat down at the empty seat next to Connor.

"The dye washes out," she muttered, half under her breath, before she glanced over at her mother and unenthusiastically told her, "Sorry."

The room remained completely still after that as nobody dared to make a move or even try to break the silence. At that rate, they were never going to get to eat and Charlie was going to self-destruct under their gaze. Everyone older than him there already probably thought that he was rude and disgusting anyways, so Connor took it upon himself to take the attention off of her as he loudly insisted, "I'm starving."

He didn't wait for a reaction before grabbing the mashed potatoes and slopping a huge pile onto his plate. Or at least most of it landed on his plate.

* * *

The rest of the meal was not much less tense and everyone was relieved when it was over.

Charlie's parents and grandfather were sitting in the kitchen talking, Charlie was convinced that it was probably about them, while she followed her brother and went to lie on his bed to talk to him quickly before he went for a shower.

"Dad thinks that I'm the problem," she commented.

Danny frowned. "I'm the one that agreed to it and showed up looking like this."

"Because I told you to," Charlie pointed out. "I'm sick of everybody assuming that there's something wrong with me just from taking one look at me and Connor. I mean, Mom doesn't even _know_ anything about Connor and she hates him. She just takes one look at him and refuses to listen to him or anything about him."

"In all fairness, you haven't exactly been trying to get her to listen lately," Danny pointed out. "You're just giving her what she expects. If you want her to listen, you have to prove that she's wrong and _make_ her listen."

Charlie frowned. "Easier said than done."

She got up then and left her brother to go take a shower, in the hopes that their parents would calm down once they saw their son back in his normal clothes and uncorrupted by her. She walked back into the living room to find that the rest of her family was still talking in the kitchen, probably arguing about just how terrible she was and what they were going to do about her, while Connor had made himself comfy on the couch. The TV was on, but he didn't look like he was really paying attention to it as commercials danced across the screen.

He was lying across all of the spots and moved to sit up when he noticed her, but instead she just laid down on top of him and burrowed her face in neck. It would probably only make things worse if her parents walked out to find her lying on him, but she was already in enough trouble that she really couldn't be bothered to care.

"At least she's leaving us alone together without hovering over us disapprovingly," Connor commented.

That didn't seem to help much, though as Charlie complained, "No one in this house can take a joke."

Miles had thought it was funny. Hell, even Connor's dad had reacted better to it. So why the hell did her family have to get mad at her and make her feel so guilty over something so minor and temporary? And would it really be the worst thing if Danny turned out like her?

"I just want today to be over," she insisted.

* * *

Danny was by no means surprised when he walked into the living room to find his sister curled up on the couch with Connor. The youngest Matheson's wet hair was no longer red, although there was still a faint pinkish tint to it if you looked too closely, and he was dressed in his own pajamas.

He dropped a bag on the ground as he told the other man, "Here's your clothes back."

Connor grinned up at him as he joked, "Maybe I'll borrow some of yours someday."

Charlie, who hadn't moved once in the last ten minutes, suddenly shot up and seemed to be in a significantly better mood as she insisted, "You're a genius, Danny."

"I think I missed something," Connor pointed out.

Danny looked just as confused for a moment before he thought he realize what his sister was talking about and a smile formed on his lips as well.

"Is someone going to tell me what's going on?" Connor questioned. "I don't have your wonder-sibling mind-reading powers."

"I have a plan," Charlie responded with a wide grin.

"Well, no offense, but I hope it's better than this one turned out be," her boyfriend responded.

* * *

Connor woke up the next morning and was more than a little surprised to find that there were already two other people standing in his kitchen.

"Oh, great," Connor mocked as a smug grin crossed his lips. "Can't I just grab something to eat without having to see any half-naked women?"

"I'm sure your innocent eyes are so offended," Bass retorted. "I thought you'd stay over at Charlie's place last night after you went over there."

"She's trying not to piss her dad off, so no more overnight visits," his son responded unenthusiastically.

"Wow, imagine that. A kid _not_ trying to piss their dad off," Bass commented as if it was something completely unheard of.

"Hilarious," Connor told him dryly before he turned his attention over to the woman who was only covered by an oversized shirt that didn't leave much of anything to the imagination, although she did not seem at all embarrassed about that as she drank her coffee without any attempts at covering herself up. "Are you my new mom?"

"You didn't tell me you had a kid," the woman spoke up as she gazed past Connor to his father.

Connor pretended to be offended as he turned around and asked his father, "You didn't even mention me?"

"We didn't exactly do a lot of talking," Bass pointed out, keeping his gaze on the woman as he too ignored his son.

"This is all starting to sound very scandalous," Connor commented loudly. "I'm starting to think that you might be a bad influence."

"Just shut up and make yourself breakfast," Bass told him. "You're just mad because you didn't get laid last night."

"Well it had to be your turn _eventually_ ," Connor insisted, but moved to go search the fridge to see what they had left anyways.

"So am I going to see you again?" Bass questioned.

"Second dates aren't exactly my thing," the woman responded.

"I'm pretty sure that's a no," Connor piped up as he set the milk down and moved to search for some cereal.

"First dates aren't really either for that matter," she added.

Connor turned around and glanced between the two of them as they stared across the room at each other.

"So do old people just have eye sex?" He questioned. "Or have you both just completely forgotten that I'm in the room?"

Silence.

"That's it. I must be invisible and you must both be deaf."

"Welcome to being around you and Charlie," Bass insisted as his eyes flickered over to Connor. "Stop talking and eat your breakfast."

"Fine, I will. _If_ you can tell me what her name is," Connor challenged in an amused tone.

They hadn't exchanged names, so that made it an even more difficult question than if he had just forgotten, but Bass knew that Connor would never let him live it down if he admitted that.

"It's Duncan," the woman spoke up for him.

"It's Duncan," Bass repeated. "Now go eat."

Connor didn't say anything, but shot his father a wide smirk as his eyebrows shot up before he finally went and grabbed his bowl of cereal and leaned back against the fridge, getting himself a nice vantage point so that he could watch the drama unfold as he ate.

"I'm not old, by the way," Duncan insisted.

"I meant him," Connor told her innocently.

"Oh. Well in that case, I like your piercings, kid," she told him.

Connor grinned over at his father as he commented, "I like her. Can we keep her?"


	9. Chapter 9

"Hurry up, Charlie!" Her brother called from outside the door. "They're going to be here soon."

Charlie let out a sigh. Looking up to her mother's standards turned out to be more time consuming than she had first expected.

"Connor's been ready for like twenty minutes," Danny added on.

"You're not helping," Charlie called through the door. "Just give me five minutes."

What was she going to do with her hair? To her mother, it would still be a pitch black reminder of how she looked now and there wasn't much she could do to change that. She stared into the mirror at a face she hardly recognized anymore, covered in the makeup Nora had leant her, and finally decided to get the hair out of her face as much as she could.

* * *

"She's still not ready?" Connor asked as Danny walked back into the room. He had thought that she had always been late before, but this was even worse than usual. "What's taking her so long?" Had she forgotten where all of her piercings were or something?

"I don't know," Danny answered with a shrug. "She said she'll be out in five minutes."

They both knew that she had already said that more than once.

"I'll go check on her," Nora told them as she rose from her chair. Neither Connor, nor Danny thought it was likely to go any better for her, but Nora figured that Charlie might need some help getting ready or that she might want to talk.

* * *

Nora knocked lightly on Miles' bedroom door. "Charlie? It's me."

She was expecting a response, but instead Charlie pulled the door open and shot her a doubtful look.

"I look ridiculous. Don't I?"

"You look good," Nora insisted. "Like any parent would be lucky to have you."

"Are you sure?" Charlie asked doubtfully, then glanced back over at her reflection again.

"Positive."

* * *

"What are you doing here?" Rachel asked in an annoyed tone when she arrived at Miles' apartment, only to meet Sebastian Monroe in the hallway. Miles had invited her and Ben over, but had said nothing about Bass coming. If she had known she would have to make it through a night with him, she wouldn't have come. Or at the very least, she would have waited until Ben got off work.

"What am _I_ doing here?" Bass repeated in a tone of disbelief. "Miles invited me. What the hell are _you_ doing here?"

"He invited me too," Rachel responded through gritted teeth.

"Oh, great," Bass muttered out sarcastically.

He turned away from her and pounded on the door with his fist. He wanted some answers and he wanted them now. Hopefully Miles would clear things up and get rid of Rachel, especially since Bass had already invited Duncan to come over for a non-committal night of drinking. It was the one way he'd known he could convince her to come meet Miles without there being any strings attached. Now, he was probably going to have to listen to Rachel bitch about how he was a bad influence on Connor for sleeping around and then she'd try to blame all Charlie's problems on him.

Well, he wasn't going to let her.

* * *

Miles got up to get the door, leaving Connor and Danny waiting by themselves in the living room. That is, until Nora reemerged from the hallway.

"Any luck?" Connor asked. "Someone's here."

Nora didn't have to answer him, since Charlie stepped out of the hallway a moment later looking uncharacteristically unsure of herself. Connor burst into laughter at the sight and Danny quickly joined in.

"Shut up," Charlie told them, although her tone didn't come out quite as angry as she had intended. After all, she herself had thought she looked ridiculous too.

"No, I like it," Connor assured her through his laughter. "It's just a lot to take in. I mean, you definitely outdid me. Is this what you used to wear?"

"Not even close," Danny answered for her. "You're right, Charlie. This is going to be like a dream come true for Mom."

The pink dress she was wearing probably was a bit much, but Charlie was going to do whatever it took to try to get her parents to actually give her and Connor a chance without just writing them off. It was a dress that her mother had bought and tried to coax her into almost a year ago. The garment had spent all of its time since at the back of her closet, up until then.

The dress covered up her naval, but she had still removed her belly button piercing so it wouldn't create a bump in the fabric. Almost all of her piercings were out, with the exception of a pair of small stud earrings that her mother had given her a long time ago. She was wearing light, natural looking makeup and her hair was pulled back into a bun, although she couldn't remember the last time she had put her hair up. On her feet were a pair of flats. The overall effect was definitely attention-grabbing.

* * *

The door opened and instead of having the decency to look apologetic or like he had just realized his mistake, Miles had the nerve to look pleased at the sight of the pair he found standing outside his door together. "Oh good, you're both here."

The two outside the door glanced nervously at each other, then hesitantly stepped through the doorway. Bass was sure to make a point of cutting Rachel off to let himself inside first.

They were barely three steps in when they heard voices coming from further in the apartment.

"Hold on, is that Connor?" Bass questioned.

Miles said nothing and continued to lead them to the living room. Something was definitely off and Miles clearly knew exactly what it was.

"What's going on?" Rachel questioned, but by the time she got the question out they had already turned the corner and could see for themselves.

"Holy shit."

Bass didn't know what was going on, but this definitely had to be some kind of joke.

Charlie was standing in the middle of the room, next to Nora, staring at the people in the doorway in sheer surprise. Connor was sitting on the couch with his feet up, wearing a suit he had borrowed from Danny. It was a little tight, but fit surprisingly well. There wasn't a hint of eyeliner on his face and all of his piercings, including the tongue stud he had purposely been bothering Rachel with before, were gone. Danny was seated on an armchair, dressed in his ordinary clothes, looking completely unsurprised by the scene that was playing out around him.

Miles was the first to say anything more. Charlie had finally emerged from his room while he was answering the door, so this was his first look at her since she had disappeared to go get ready.

"I know you said you were trying to dress in something she'd approve of," Miles said with a chuckle. "But I haven't seen you in something like this since your mom still dressed you."

Rachel glanced from her daughter, to Connor, then back to Charlie again. Well, Rachel wasn't sure what game they were playing, but they had certainly put quite the effort into it. Still, how was dressing up for one night supposed to undo all of the things she had caught them doing? And how was it going to reverse any of the damage Bass's son had done to her daughter? She was still staring in shock when Bass finally spoke up again and broke the silence.

He turned over to Miles and commented, "I thought it was just going to be us."

Miles shrugged innocently. "I figured you were more likely to show up that way."

He had a point. Bass probably would not have come if he'd known Rachel was going to be there. He probably would have stayed home and had Duncan over instead of coming to Miles' apartment to watch his kid and Charlie play house, or whatever it was that was going on here.

Connor glanced from Rachel, who was still frozen in the spot she had been standing when she had first seen them, over to his father. He forced his tone to come out indifferent as he commented, "You're always complaining about the eyeliner and piercings. I thought you'd be thrilled."

Well, it was quite the improvement. Bass just wasn't sure what to think of this set-up.

"You two might actually make it through a metal detector now," he responded. "I'm not complaining."

Rachel felt the need to speak up then. She couldn't have Bass coming off as the approving parent out of them. If Charlie and Connor were going out of their way to put on an act, then she was going to play along. At least for now.

"You look good, Charlie," she finally spoke up, addressing specifically her daughter and disregarding Connor altogether. "See? You don't need all the make-up and piercings."

It was a somewhat backhanded compliment, but at least Rachel was actually playing along with their plan for now. Maybe she was ignoring Connor, but at least she wasn't targeting him. And maybe if she took Charlie a little more seriously, she would consider giving Connor a chance.

* * *

Rachel was more than a little surprised when Charlie had voluntarily left the room to order pizza. She couldn't get Charlie to cooperate at all at home. Then again, helping out now was probably a part of the act they were putting on. Little did she know that Charlie and Nora almost exclusively ordered the food around there.

There was a knock at the door a few minutes later, definitely too early for the pizza to be there.

Connor got up off of the couch, glad to have an excuse to get away for a moment. He agreed with the plan and although he thought it could work, it was a little difficult trying to be on his best behaviour and win over people who would barely even hold a conversation about whether or not they were willing to eat pizza.

He opened the door and was more than a little surprised by who was at it.

"Oh," Duncan said in a surprised tone. "You're here. Your dad didn't tell me you would be."

She didn't know what was going on. But if Connor's suit was any indication, then she was sure she was going to hate it. Hadn't Bass said they were just going to have a few drinks? She very specifically remembered asking, somewhat apprehensively, if this was going to be a date and him assuring her that it was anything but.

Connor couldn't hold back a smirk at that. His dad must really like Duncan, regardless of how casual they claimed things were, if he was bringing her around Miles. No wonder he had been so worried about it not just being him and Miles. This did not seem like Duncan's kind of thing.

Connor liked Duncan and he didn't want to screw things up entirely between her and his dad, so as he stepped out of the doorway to let her in, he warned her, "He didn't know. He didn't know about any of this, so just keep that in mind."

"That doesn't sound ominous at all," Duncan commented sarcastically as she followed him further into the apartment. When Connor didn't answer, she added, "Nice suit, kid." She meant it, but she had also said it because she was hoping he would explain why he was wearing it.

Connor glanced over his shoulder and flashed her a grin. "Right? I look good."

Duncan let out a laugh. "How modest of you."

"I'm serious. I might start wearing suits every day," Connor insisted as they turned into the living room. He was kidding, mostly anyways, but he certainly hadn't been bothered by his reflection when he had checked how he looked.

Duncan stopped in the doorway and looked around. On the one hand, she was relieved that Bass was dressed casually and not wearing suit and tie like his son was. On the other hand, this was definitely not what she had been expecting to walk in on. So this is what Connor had been cryptically warning her about.

"This is a lot of people," she pointed out.

Shit.

Bass should have called her and cancelled. He had been considering it when he'd first run into Rachel, but then he had gotten a little distracted by Connor and Charlie's new appearances and had forgotten. This had to be the opposite of anything Duncan wanted to attend.

Duncan shifted her gaze over to Charlie and questioned, "So is this the girlfriend?" Somehow, this did not fit the mental image she had of Connor's girlfriend, especially considering she knew Bass did not approve of the girl. She didn't exactly look like a corrupting influence to Duncan. "Tell me she isn't always this pink and frilly."

Although pink and frilly may have been an overstatement, it certainly wasn't completely unwarranted.

"She isn't," Connor responded for her. Charlie was still a little too busy wondering who this woman was and who had invited her to defend herself.

It was Rachel who finally joined the conversation as she turned to the brunette and questioned, "Who are you?"

Connor had to resist the urge to introduce her with 'This is Duncan. She has casual sex with my dad'. They were supposed to be on best behaviour, not picking fights right off the bat, so he bit his tongue.

"Duncan," she introduced herself. She left her last name out since she wasn't convinced she wanted these people knowing it. She didn't bother explaining why she was there as she questioned, "Who are you people?"

"I'm Nora," Nora introduced herself with a friendly smile as she quickly took over the introductions to try to ease of a little of the tension in the room. "And that's Miles," she said as she pointed over to her boyfriend. "That's Charlie and Danny. And then Rachel's their mom."

Well, Miles made a total of one person Duncan had actually heard of besides Connor's girlfriend. She didn't really want Bass telling her all about the people in his life though. She liked only having to hear about his one friend and, if she was being perfectly honest, he did talk about Miles more than she really cared for.

"Anyone else coming?" Duncan asked.

She had meant it as a joke, but Charlie spoke up with, "My dad's still coming."

"Oh, so it's a whole family thing," Duncan commented. Perfect. She didn't meet families of the guys she was seeing. Hell, she usually didn't even give in and meet their friends. Now, she had gone from drinking with one of Bass's friends to a dinner party with Connor's girlfriend's whole family. "I need a drink."

Bass finally spoke up for the first time since not his date had shown up as he stepped towards her and told her, "The kitchen's this way."

Once they were alone, Bass rushed to explain, "I didn't know all these people were going to be here. I thought it was just going to Miles."

"I know," Duncan responded. "Connor told me."

That was surprising. Normally, Connor would go out of his way to do anything he could to get under his father's skin or mess with him. So then why was he going out of his way to explain to Duncan that this wasn't Bass's fault?

She opened some cupboards, hoping to find where the good alcohol was hidden, but instead found that they seemed to be mostly for decoration. After the first two turned out to be complete busts, she opened the fridge and found that there was only beer in there. Well, that made her decision for her.

As she walked back out of the kitchen she turned to Miles and commented, "Tell me, how does someone live on their own without any plates, only two glasses, and a fridge with only beer?"

Her place wasn't exactly stocked with fresh ingredients, but at least she could make a meal and eat it off of something.

"One glass for me and one glass for whoever's over," Miles responded with a shrug that showed he wasn't embarrassed about being called out for it.

His idea wasn't half bad for ensuring there wouldn't likely be more than one person over. However, it wasn't exactly practical for situations like this.

Charlie's composure cracked and she let out a sigh without thinking. How many times had she told Miles that he needed to buy actual plates and not just stock up on paper plates once every two years? Her and Connor were supposed to be having their parents over for a nice dinner where they weren't going to drink any alcohol. She never should have trusted that Miles would have dishes, even disposable ones. She realized now that it was the first thing she should have checked when she got there.

Nora shook her head as she told her boyfriend, "One of these days I am going to make you buy real plates."

That wasn't going to do them any good at the moment though, so in a somewhat exasperated tone, Charlie commented, "I'll deal with it."

She glanced over at Connor and he fished the keys out of his pocket and tossed them over to her. As she headed towards the door, he commented, "I can't believe you're going out in public like that."

Rachel thought it was much more presentable than anything Charlie had worn out lately, but held back her opinion. Instead, she waited until the door shut behind her daughter and then commented, "She really is laying it on thick."

Connor frowned and forgot about being civil for a second as he muttered out, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just saying, suddenly she's volunteering to do everything for Miles without any prompting," Rachel responded. "I know my daughter and I don't really see what she thinks she's going to accomplish with this act."

Connor couldn't believe Rachel's nerve. Maybe Charlie had put on an outfit that she thought her mother would like and was trying to tone the attitude down, but it was only because it was what Rachel wanted and what she kept nagging Charlie to do. Charlie had put a lot of effort into it, but this wasn't just an act, especially dealing with Miles' inability to keep his apartment at all stocked with anything other than alcohol.

Who cared about what Rachel thought of him? She wasn't going to give him a chance anyways, but she should really give her own daughter one.

"It's not an act," he argued. "If it wasn't for Charlie, Miles would never have anything but beer here."

Bass was actually inclined to agree on this one. He knew Miles and he knew that he wasn't exactly concerned with keeping his kitchen stocked with anything reasonable. He had expected Nora to whip him into shape when they had started dating, but for the most part they went to Nora's place, so she wasn't too concerned with what was or wasn't in Miles' kitchen. And if Connor apparently volunteered to get Miles drinks without any prompting on a regular basis, then it wasn't that far of a stretch that Charlie helped him too. After all, they had both seemed to act a hell of a lot better around Miles when they had been giving Danny the opposite makeover at his place.

"That sounds about right," Bass agreed with his son. "So is this where you two are always running off to?"

"Maybe," Connor responded with a shrug. He was surprised that his father was on his side. He couldn't tell if it was because he really agreed with him or if it was just to get under Rachel's skin like it had been when she'd shown up on their doorstep to complain about him. He really hoped that this plan was at least working on one of their parents.

Rachel couldn't believe that they had been coming over to Miles' place regularly while she had spent so much time worrying about where Charlie was and what she was up to. Why hadn't Miles told her and calmed her nerves a little?

She turned to look over at Miles as she asked, "Does she really help you like this regularly?"

"She pretty much runs things over here for the price of the occasional pizza," Miles responded casually.

Why did everyone here seem to think this was so obvious? And how had Rachel not known about any of it?

* * *

There was another knock at the door and Connor assumed that it was Charlie, back with some paper plates and cups, so he rose to his feet and headed for the door once again.

He opened it to find that he had been wrong about who was going to be on the other side once again. Instead of Charlie, her father was standing in the doorway and he looked more than a little surprised that Connor was the one answering Miles' door.

He probably should have said something to greet him, but instead Connor just stared at the other man stupidly.

"What's with the suit?" Ben asked after a long pause. "And what happened to your piercings?"

"Both good questions," Connor responded. However, they were both good questions that he would rather have Charlie answer. Too bad she hadn't come back yet.

Ben waited, then decided that he probably wasn't going to get an answer to either of those questions, so he decided to try a different one. "Why are you answering Miles' door?"

"I thought you were Charlie," Connor answered. At least that one had an easier explanation.

"Okay," Ben said, although in all reality Connor really hadn't cleared anything up for him. "Well then, can I come in?" It was kind of strange having to ask Charlie's boyfriend for permission to enter his brother's apartment.

"Oh, right," Connor said as he took a big step back to get out of the way.

Ben was no less surprised when he walked into his brother's living room to find significantly more people than he had originally anticipated. He looked from Rachel to Miles, then asked, "What exactly is going on here?"

"I'm finally getting that intervention you keep threatening to give me," Miles lied.


End file.
